Session at the 19th Global Development Conference

The European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) facilitates discussions on the research-practice nexus

During the 19th Global Development Conference which took place from 23 to 25 October 2019 in Bonn, the world café session titled "A question of shared responsibility? Debating roles, processes and risks within the research – practice nexus" brought together researchers from different fields of study as well as practitioners to discuss the realities of research-practice collaborations.

Three thematic tables were set up to inspire discussions of the challenges of research-practice collaborations, their ethical implications as well as success factors from the perspectives of researchers, think tanks and facilitators.

The main ethical concerns were power relations in research-practice collaborations, which can be tackled by including ethical facilitators or brokers, and the sharing of results with the communities involved. Main challenges discussed to research-practice collaborations especially in the field of evidence-based policy advice were the political cycles which can distract from long-term perspectives, intransparent policies, finding sources of funding as well as the clash between research and political agendas. As success factors for research-practice collaborations, trust, institutional relationships and adequate funding for partners from the Global South as well as the openness to experiments and failures were named.

Panelists were Katja Bender, Director of the International Centre for Sustainable Development, Ondřej Horký-Hlucháň, senior researcher at the Institute for International Relations, Czech Republic, Maru Mormina, senior researcher and ethics advisor at Oxford University, Talia Vela-Eiden, EADI Knowledge Exchange Partnerships Officer, Bridge 47 - Building Global Citizenship Project and Peter Krahl from the research department of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Session chair was Sven Grimm (DIE-GDI).